The Seattle Times and Seattle television station KING have created a local online advertising network focused on local news sites and blogs.

Revenues from ads placed through the BeLocal Ad Network will be shared with online publishers, the companies said.

"This new partnership combines the power of The Seattle Times and KING 5 sales forces to help contribute to the viability of the great variety of local community blogs," said Alan Fisco, The Times' senior vice president of sales and marketing, in a statement.

The Times is an early proponent of working with local blogs and hyperlocal sites. The paper already shares content generated by online publishers through the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation-funded Networked Journalism Project (see News & Tech, October 2009).

The sales initiative, Fisco said, "will only make those partnerships stronger."

Welcome to the discussion.

Local media would crush national pureplays if they would only cooperate digitally instead of all competing. An online ad network driven my cooperating local media....powerful. Sure there will be problems in executing the strategy...so what? Don't let the naysayers sway ya!